Skilled Migrant and Parent Resident Visas – Reopening

Today, 12 October 2022, Stewart Dalley attended a meeting at the invite of the Minister of Immigration where the Minister made some welcomed announcements related to both the Skilled Migrant Category and the Parent Category Resident Visas.

Skilled Migrant Category

Selections of expressions of interest (EOIs) for the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa will resume on 9 November 2022. EOIs submitted before 9 May 2022 which do not result in an invitation to apply will expire and will not be reselected.

The Minister also indicated that the long-term direction of the Skilled Migrant Category is being reviewed and there may be changes in the future. Already announced is the increasing of the points to be selected for an invitation to apply for residence to 180.

On 11 November 2002, Immigration New Zealand will select all EOIs that have a score of 160 points. Thereafter, those EOIs will be checked to ensure the right number of points for your age, experience, employment, and qualifications. If you meet the points threshold, you will be invited to apply for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa.

This means you have a small window between now and NZ 13:00 hours (1pm) 11 November 2022 in which to submit an EOI if you can claim 160 points.

Due to the tight timescales involved and the ability of people to obtain English test results in time to apply, INZ has confirmed that when making an EOI, applicants will be able to make a declaration of meeting qualification points and English language requirements ahead of receiving assessment results from providers or to use a English test result that is more than 2 years old at time of applying.

Stewart and Pooja can assist with assessing your ability to claim the 160 points and in submitting your EOI before the cut off.

There will be no cap placed on the amount of SMC resident visas that can be issued in any given year.

Parent Resident Visa

After a long wait, the Parent Category for Residence will reopen with some tweaks to the previous settings. The government is increasing the number of visas available each year from 1000 to 2500.

Immigration New Zealand will resume selecting existing expressions of interest (EOIs) on 14 November 2022.

For sponsors this means they will not have to earn as much to sponsor and there is the ability for 2 adult children, rather than just an adult child and their partner, to combine their income to sponsor parents.

A sponsor now needs to earn 1.5 times the New Zealand median wage rather than twice the median wage. This limit increases by half the median wage for each joint sponsor or additional parent.

These new requirements apply to existing expressions of interest and those we receive from 12 October 2022.

Existing EOIs — these are EOIs INZ received before 12 October 2022 — will be selected in the date order received. INZ will begin selecting them on 14 November 2022 and continue to select them every 3 months after that.

If you withdrew your EOI because you could not meet the previous income limit set before October 2019, INZ will invite you to resubmit an EOI to the queue.

New EOIs received by INZ from 12 October 2022 will go into a ballot i.e., these are not selected on date received order, but potluck. The first random selection from the ballot is in August 2023, then every 3 months after that.

INZ say that there is no rush to submit an EOI because EOIs that have not been selected from the ballot expire after 2 years. Therefore, if you submit it closer to the ballot selection in August you can maximise the amount of time it stays in the ballot before expiring.

500 visas will be available each year for EOIs selected by ballot.

What’s Next

Next year will also see consultation taking place around family and partnership visas more broadly.

Stewart is the Chair of Auckland District Law Society’s Immigration and Refugee law Committee, of which Pooja is also a member. We will be consulted about the review of the SMC policy as well as the family and partner visas.